Islam Karimov Death: Uzbekistan President Dead After Ruling Over 25 Years

Islam Karimov Death: The President of Central Asia’s most populous nation Uzbekistan died at the age of 78 years. He ruled over 25 years and suffered a stroke last week. One of his daughters Lola Tillyaeva confirmed the news via Instagram.

Lola announced the same via posting a black picture on her Instagram account on Friday. She wrote “he has left us … I am choosing my words, and can’t believe this.” Moreover, the reports are confirmed by government and parliament. The funeral of Karimov will take place in hometown Samarkand on Saturday.

Islam Karimov Death

The national television channel announced the same. The presenter said, “Dear citizens, it is with huge grief in our hearts that we announce to you the death of our beloved president.”

Uzbekistan is the former part of the USSR and situated near to the boundary of Afghanistan since it got independence from Moscow in 1991. The crackdown was highly criticized by right’s groups.

Karimov left the world without pointing to a clear successor. He was re-elected for the fifth consecutive time in 2015 with more than 90 percent votes. However, the country has never held any election by the fair and free way by international monitors.

People who may rule after Islam’s death are Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov as told by Kamoliddin Rabbimov, an independent Uzbek political analyst.

Islam Karimov Dead or Alive

Earlier, Karimov’s eldest daughter Gulnara was supposed to be a potential successor. Later on, she was put under house arrest when she openly criticized family members and officials on Twitter in 2014.

She criticized her mother and youngest sister of sorcery, compared her father with Stalin, and attacked one of the nation’s influential person for corruption and having dreams of being next president.

As the history speaks, the Uzbek government has been criticized continuously for human rights abuses, religious repression, and censorship.

Karimov’s name also came in the human rights abusers, especially in 2005 event. At that time, the government is allegedly killed hundreds of peaceful protestors in the city of Andijan.

The United Nations (UN) referred Uzbekistan’s use of torture is systematic. Reporters Without Borders even said that Karimov has many times broke his own records for repression and paranoia.

Islam Karimov Death: reason and cause

Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, had accused the security forces of Karimov for killing two protestors by boiling them.

Islam Karimov was brought by an orphanage in the ancient city of Samarkand and then studied mechanical engineering and economics. In his political career, he started with the Communist Party and got ranked to head Soviet Uzbekistan in 1989.